Eroom Nala's Glob

Wednesday, December 31, 2003

The last film to be seen by me this year is Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West on DVD around about 4 am to 6.30 am or so and just before it I watched the documentary about it on the 2nd DVD. Watched the film with the commentary track on so I got to hear the likes of directors such as John Milius, Alex Cox and John Carpenter comment on the film and Bertolucci talk about his input to the script and Claudia Cardinale say how embarrassing and awkward it was to shoot her first scene with Henry Fonda at the Cinecitta studios with not only the production people but also journalists looking on as she did a pretty risque (for its time) love scene with the screen legend. No sound bytes or interviews with Charles Bronson but there were a few old video interviews with Leone and Fonda.
As for the film itself that was actually the first time I ever saw it . The Morricone score isn't as famous as say The Good the Bad and the Ugly but it was still quite good with each of the 4 main characters having their own theme including Jason Robards.
I don't even remember seeing it on TV ever although I do remember seeing the other 3 Clint Eastwood westerns on TV at various times.
Quite good with an epic quality to it but I don't think there's ever been an epic western to compare with say Quo Vadis or Ben Hur (as to the number of background characters with some story and crowd scenes, complications of plot, etc.) Most western can be reduced to a handful of people interacting in some way. In this case just 4 and even though Cardinale had a major part she was quite passive in it, about as passive as Charles Bronson who seemed to watch things from the side for most of the film.
Picked up a copy of the Sydney Festival program and it seems that Tom Stoppard is doing a talk on the 11th and it's only 35 bucks and a Sunday so as long as I'm not working I definitely plan to go to that as long as I can get a ticket.

Tuesday, December 23, 2003

I don't care what they have to say
It makes no difference anyway
Whatever it is I'm against it
- Groucho Marx in Horse Feathers

I meant to post before this and I actually did do a post a week or more ago but for some reason it didn't register.

Let's see what's happened in the last few weeks.

Films seen recently. LXG the movie seen on a pirated DVD copied form a South East Asian master complete with hilarious subtitles obviously done by someone who could speak English phonetically even if they didn't always know the meaning of the words.

Even worse than From Hell as an adaptation of an Alan Moore comic. I would say that less than 1% of the original comic made it into the finished film. OK on its' own terms but it could have been so much better. Also saw Master and Commander. Haven't seen a film that good in ages and because a friend wanted to go Looney Tunes: Back in Action. Joe Dante threw in a few reference to 50's SF films but for me the best part was Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck being pursued by Elmer Fudd through several painting in the Louvre including
Dali's Persistence of MemoryMunch's The ScreamSeurat's A Sunday Afternoon.... and
a Tolouse Lautrec poster.

Yesterday I finally made it half way through freezing the first 25 Promethea annotations pages. Up to #13 now. Behind schedule but I hope to have done all 25 by mid-January at the latest.

Finally caught up with this on the weekend on a pirated DVD copy made from South East Asia with subtitles obviously done by someone who could speak English phonetically but didn't know what the words meant.
To my eyes less than 1% of Alan and Kevin's original comic book made it into the film. Basically just the title, some character names, the fact that Jekyll becomes much bigger when he is Hyde and one minor character quoting the first line from Moby Dick. Disappointing to say the least. The bit I liked best was the 20th Century Fox logo at the start still appearing in the background after it fades and even that was a ripoff of the first Indiana Jones film.
Also on the weekend saw Master and Commander: The End of the World. Can't remember the last time I saw a film this good.
There was even a joke in it worse than Alan's Matter tau mind in Promethea about